


Deep End

by carpebagel



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Pool, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-25
Updated: 2014-02-25
Packaged: 2018-01-13 17:08:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1234423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carpebagel/pseuds/carpebagel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Armin loved being a lifeguard - the quiet mornings and the peaceful nights were the perfect times to read, and the monotony of his day-to-day work schedule provided him with a nice routine that he'd perfected over the last two summers. </p><p>All of this changed when he had to save Eren Jaeger from drowning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deep End

**Author's Note:**

> so, here's a monstrosity based on [this post](http://arlert-arlert.tumblr.com/post/74683757973/eremin-au-in-which-armin-is-a-lifeguard-at-a) i made about a month ago.
> 
> endless thank you's to armin-avert, who has been so so kind and encouraging to me over the past few weeks! also thank you to anyone who has liked/reblogged that post, because all those notes pushed me to write more.
> 
> some notes: "up" refers to the 30 minutes period that you're sitting in the chair, and "chair" refers to the lifeguard chair.
> 
> i've been working on this for a while so i hope you enjoy!!
> 
> edited 7/2/14 for grammar

Armin loved working at the pool. Really, he did. There was a fair amount of predictability and routine that came with being a lifeguard at a private neighborhood pool and, there was just enough surprise to keep things interesting. Sure, working seven hour shifts wasn’t really ideal, but he was getting paid to be there… so as far as summer jobs went, being a lifeguard was pretty great.

But there were some times, some isolated moments in which being a lifeguard was one of the most irritating jobs on the planet. For instance, Armin had already blown the whistle not one, but _five_ times at a boy who kept jumping off the side of the diving board. And while the chances of this kid hurting himself at the diving well of the pool were slim, Armin would rather not have to deal with an accident report and a potential lawsuit. Taking in a deep breath, Armin decided it was time to call the boy over.

He took a moment to remind himself how much he loved his job before yelling “hey!” across the L-shaped pool to the rule-breaking kid running around the deep end.

The kid looked around, obviously startled. Armin motioned for him to come to the lifeguard chair so he could talk to the boy directly, in an effort to convince him to stop breaking the rules. In an ideal world, the madness should’ve ended there. But for Armin – pleasant, wonderful Armin – the trouble just had to keep coming.

He ended up in a fifteen minute one-sided conversation with the kid’s mom who insisted that her darling baby angel was incapable of doing anything wrong. “Do you have proof that my son jumped off the side of the diving board?” she asked accusingly.

“I mean, I saw him do it,” Armin said, trying his best to split his focus between the mother and the pool. Times like these were always hard because nobody seemed to be able to grasp the concept that being a lifeguard required your attention to be focused on the water at all times. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I’d love to talk about it more but I have to watch the pool.”

“Like hell you do!” she yelled. “If you’d been watching you’d have known that my son did nothing wrong!”

“Right,” Armin muttered, grinding his teeth. “Could you please bring it up with my manager? I’ll call him over for you, even – “

“Don’t try and wiggle your way out of this.”

And the conversation went on with one-worded answers from Armin, the woman following him to the clubhouse once he finished his time in the chair. Mothers like her made it really hard for Armin to find lifeguarding enjoyable. Some parents found it so extremely difficult to process how their child could’ve done something wrong that they spend the majority of the time blaming the kid’s fault on whoever was in charge. And, unfortunately for Armin, it happened to be him.

He led the woman and her child to the back office, where Levi was sitting in his swivel chair with his elbows on the desk and his head in his hands, black bangs obscuring the top of his fingers. The desk, which was facing the window to the pool deck, seemed large compared to his small stature. “Here’s my manager,” Armin said, his voice barely above a whisper. He glanced at the kid, who looked bored out of his mind. Armin almost felt bad for him.

Levi turned towards the woman and stared her down, not blinking for several seconds, cold grey eyes staring her down. “What’s the problem?” Levi asked. He probably didn’t mean to sound as cold as he does – he never did, Armin thought, it’s just that his voice has this sort of unnatural coolness to it. He shuddered.

“Your lifeguard here says that my child was breaking the rules when he obviously wasn’t,” the woman said, folding her arms across her chest.

“Were you watching him?” Levi asked, eyebrows raised.

“Well, no – “

“Then I’m afraid I’ll have to side with Armin on this one,” he said. The woman gasped.

“What do you mean?” she asked incredulously.

“I don’t hire guards who lie. His job is to watch every patron at the pool, and he’s been doing this for two years. Never once has he been wrong about a rule infraction. He knows what he’s doing, and frankly I’m insulted that you think otherwise. Please leave my office,” he said. He was about to turn back towards the desk, but he stopped short. “Oh, and your child will sit out for the next five minutes.”

“Hey!” the kid cried in protest. As the pair left, Armin could hear the kid complaining about how he’d basically been sitting out for fifteen minutes already.

“Sorry they were bothering you,” Levi said.

Armin shrugged. “Thanks, Levi. It happens.” Armin made his way to the guard office and hoped that the rest of his week wouldn’t be as annoying as the last hour had been.

 

 

Of course, it wasn’t.

“Hey Armin – “ Jean started, walking into the office with a wide grin on his face. Once he saw Armin reading he hesitated, obviously taking a second to reconsider whatever he was about to say. “Can you ask Ymir to take my next up for me? I was gonna ask you, but –“ he gestured to the book in Armin’s hand – “anyway my friend is about to come, and I wanna race him, and my up is in two minutes, so…”

Armin blinked at Jean before putting his book down. Working at a smaller pool was nice because while there’s an order to the up rotation, it didn’t really have to be followed. Guards could switch shifts and ups with each other as much as they wanted so long as they made sure that the switches would actually work – once Levi had to close the pool alone after a misunderstanding that almost got Jean fired. As long as the guards were reasonable, there was a decent amount of freedom and flexibility in being a lifeguard. Armin liked it. “It’s fine,” he said, “I just got to a really good stopping place so I can go up for you.”

“Sweet! Armin, you’re the best!”

“Who’s this friend, by the way?” Armin asked as he grabbed his sunglasses and whistle from the table, making his way to the office door with Jean trailing behind.

“Oh, he’s just some asshole who goes to my school. He’s physically incapable of backing down from a challenge,” Jean explained, running a hand through his blonde hair that only seemed to get blonder in the summer sun. "I’m taking this as my opportunity to beat him and impress Marco.”

“Really, Jean?” Armin asked, although it really wasn't that surprising. Jean pulled this kind of crap all the time. The thing about Jean was that he never really meant to be an asshole, it’s just how he came off. He was like a small dog that needed to prove its worth by barking all the time.

“It’s a foolproof plan – I’ll show Eren that I am superior to him and Marco will be so impressed with my physically prowess that he’ll go out with me.” Bark, bark, bark.

Armin laughed. “I’m pretty sure Marco would go out with you, anyway.” Armin stopped halfway through the door to the clubhouse. “Have you even asked him out?”

“Well, no, but I will soon…“ Jean muttered, rubbing his neck.

“Then I hope the race will help you get that confidence boost you need.” He turned to Jean, who was looking away. “I’m sure he’ll say yes.”

“Thanks, man,” Jean said before quickly clarifying, “for going up for me, I mean. I owe you one.”

Armin laughed and stepped out of the clubhouse, putting his sunglasses on in a way that made him feel like more than a badass than he really was. He walked to the lifeguard chair and smiled as he approached Marco. He watched the pool as Marco descended, giving a small wave as he climbed up the ladder. “Thanks, Marco,” he said as a dismissal, and he watched as Marco’s freckled back walks towards the lifeguard office.

Armin laughed to himself about Jean’s plan. It’s all so unnecessary, he thought. Marco would say yes if Jean asked him out regardless of whether Jean beat his friend in a race. He hummed as he turned his attention towards the water.

It was a few minutes before Armin saw Jean walk out of the boys’ locker room with someone he’d never seen before trailing behind. The boy, who Armin assumed was Jean’s friend, was tall, tan, fit, and absolutely gorgeous, shaggy brown hair falling into the prettiest eyes Armin had ever seen.

That was another thing Armin liked about his job. He was paid to watch attractive people swim.

He watched as the pair of them stopped outside the clubhouse to argue, the boy with the dark hair ending the debacle with a slap to Jean’s back, laughing as he walked a couple of steps ahead of Jean.

They made their way to the deep end of the pool and lined themselves up against the edge of the wall. Jean did a few stretches as he scanned the pool to make sure that Marco was somewhere nearby, looking vaguely worried as if his plan wouldn’t work. The look on his face was almost enough to make Armin laugh, if he hadn’t known that Jean was genuinely concerned with Marco’s feelings for him.

“Hey Armin,” Jean yelled, “can you blow the whistle for the start?”

“Yeah, sure,” Armin said as he grabbed his whistle and put it in his mouth. He counted through his teeth and blew on three.

Jean dove in the water almost immediately. His form was nearly perfect after ten years on swim team, and the difference between him and his friend was incredible. Jean’s friend hesitated at the edge of the pool before bellyflopping into the water, barely making it six inches from the pool wall.

Jean freestyled his way effortlessly across the pool and reached the other side in twenty seconds. His friend, on the other hand, made a b-line for the pool wall parallel to his position after a few seconds of trying (and failing) to stay afloat. 

Armin watched as Jean’s friend struggled to make it to the pool edge, arms slapping the water and legs kicking haphazardly. As he emerged from the water the boy seemed to be out of breath, coughing loudly as he tried to lift himself out of the water before collapsing facedown at the edge of the pool.

 _What?_ He thought that Jean only would’ve challenged someone to a race if they had already known how to swim! Before he could think about the situation any further Armin pushed aside all speculation and focused only one what he could do to help the poor boy. It had been a while since he’d made his last save, and that patron was submerged six feet under the water, so this situation was a little bit different because the boy already removed himself from the situation, and – he’d have to make sure that he wasn’t choking on water or in need of greater assistance.

He blew a double whistle and ran to the boy’s side, flipping him over. He hooked his hands under the boy’s arms and pulled him away from the pool, kneeling by his side. He looked over him with anticipation, leaning in to examine his breathing when suddenly the boy’s eyes began to open. He was okay. Armin sighed as he sat back with his fists on his knees.

He waited a couple of seconds before the boy began coughing again, turning over to cover his mouth with his elbow. He sat up and looked Armin dead in the eye, piecing together what just happened.

“I can’t believe I lost to Jean,” he muttered, eyes wide.

“Are you _kidding_ me?” Armin exclaimed, almost yelling.

The boy propped himself up on his elbows. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“You almost drowned just now, and of all things you’re thinking about how you lost to _Jean?_ Can you even swim?”

“Well, no,” the boy said curtly. “I was hoping I could win anyway, though. Athlete’s intuition or something.”

“That’s kind of ridiculous.”

“At least I’m alive to tell the tale,” he laughed, and Armin almost joined in – almost. The apparent lack of discretion on the boy’s part and the fact that he’d barely been frazzled by nearly drowning caused amusement to bubble in the back of Armin’s throat. But he was a lifeguard, and his greatest responsibility was keeping everyone safe, so he stopped himself short.

“I’m joking, by the way,” the boy said. “I’m actually kind of embarrassed.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Arming said as he stood up. “What’s your name, anyway?” He offered a hand to the boy below him.

“Eren,” he said as he took Armin’s hands. “Thanks for the whole saving me thing.”

“No problem,” Armin said. As Eren stood to his full height, Armin noticed that Eren was three, maybe four inches taller than him. “I’m just doing my job.”

“Well, it’s good that you were the one on duty. I’m pretty sure Jean would’ve just let me drown – I mean, he’s over there doubled over in laughter already, so…” Armin turned to look at Jean who, as Eren mentioned, was howling with laughter. His cheeks were dusted pink and Armin swore he could even see a tear or two forming at the rims of Jean’s eyes. Marco was standing nearby, arm on Jean’s back and only laughing now that he knew Eren was safe from harm.

Armin scratched the back of his head. “He’s actually decently competent, y’know. Not like, outwardly or anything but I’ve seen him do a few saves.”

“What about you?” Eren asked as they walked towards the lifeguard chair. “How many saves have you made?”

“My most recent save was last year, actually. It’s been a while.”

“Well, you did a pretty good job!” Eren exclaimed.

“What do you mean?” Armin asked.

“I’m still here, aren’t I? That’s all thanks to you!” Armin laughed. This kid – Eren, who really couldn’t have been much older than Armin himself – was something else. Armin wasn’t really used to people being so outwardly kind to him upon first meeting, and he certainly wasn’t used to having full-blown conversations with them. It was nice, he admitted, even if the conversation only resulted from having to save the poor boy’s life.

“Ah, crap – I almost forgot to ask!” Eren said, turning towards Armin. “What’s your name?”

“Armin,” he said. He stopped short of the chair and gave Eren a wave before climbing up the ladder.

Well, it could be worse. Armin smiled to himself as he took his place on the chair, scanning the pool waters once again.

Two hours and no additional accidents later, Armin realized that Eren was still at the pool. He’d been watching him idly throughout the day, wondering whether he’d try and swim again and if he’d be more successful the second time around. He didn’t spend much time thinking about why Eren had decided to swim despite not knowing how to or why Eren spent an unreasonable amount staring at Armin while he was in the chair, although it did provide a small distraction from the monotony of his work schedule that he had grown so accustomed to over the past two years.

He didn’t mind Eren’s presence – in fact, he kind of enjoyed it. The boy was an endless source of entertainment when he was around Jean, and somehow Armin’s thirty minute ups seemed to go by a bit quicker when he was watching Eren mess around in the water. Most weeknights got kind of boring past eight, so his company and subsequent shenanigans were much appreciated.

Armin and Jean were closing the pool that night. Eren had been at the pool for over five hours, but it kind of made sense for him to be there. After all, Jean was Eren’s ride home. Still, most pool guests left after two hours, even if it meant having to take themselves home.

As 8:30 approached, Armin decided that it was time to clean the bathroom.

He went to the back office to grab a bucket, rummaging through the cupboard to find the Pine Sol. He grunted as he handled the 3 gallon bottle, lifting the bottom up gently so as to pour the cleaning fluid into the bucket below. He brought the bucket into the entrance of boys’ locker room, placing it on the ground before calling out to Jean to tell him that he’ll have to do the girl’s room tonight. Jean gave him two, over-exaggerated thumbs down and yelled “ _boo!”_ from across the pool. Armin laughed as he got a broom from the supplies closet and entered the locker room.

He hooked up the hose to the faucet underneath the sink and hummed to himself as he filled the bucket with water, suds at the top. Once the bucket was filled to the brim, he used the hose to water down the entirety of the boy’s locker room, walking around the bathroom to make sure that everything is wet. He kicked open the stall doors and crinkled his nose as the smell of urine filled his nostrils, a rancid reminder that sometimes, being a lifeguard could really suck.

Armin quickly hosed over the toilet and stall walls before slamming the door shut as quickly as possible.

When he returned to the sink, he bent down to turn off the faucet and noticed a pair of feet standing in front of him. Armin looked up to find Eren, staring down at him. He blinked. “Hey,” Eren said, stepping back from Armin.

“Hi,” he replied.

“It gets kinda boring, hanging around Jean for five hours. There are only so many horse-face jokes you can make before you run out of steam, y’know? Plus Jean’s my ride home so I gotta wait for him,” Eren said, shuffling his feet. “Anyway I’d figure that cleaning the bathrooms is kinda dull, so I came here.”

“Oh,” Armin said, grabbing the broom and dunking it in the bucket. He didn’t respond beyond that – not because he didn’t want to, because he did, but he didn’t know what to say. He cleared his throat.

“I mean – it might not be boring, I don’t know. I’ve never done it,” Eren clarified once he noticed Armin’s discomfort. “I can leave, if you want. Sorry if I overstepped.”

“No, no!” Armin said as he placed the broom on the ground, beginning to scrub. “Sorry. It’s just that nobody usually keeps me company when I clean, so I was surprised. Nothing bad.”

“Gotcha,” Eren said. “Well, if I’m here, can I at least help?”

“Yeah, there’s some stuff in the supplies closet,” Armin said, not meeting Eren’s eyes. Eren gave a small affirmation before leaving in search of another broom.

It was weird, Armin thought. Eren had provided him with a perfectly reasonable excuse for helping him clean the bathroom, but he had trouble validating it in his mind. There was no way that Eren could’ve been actively _thinking_ of Armin, right? He had been considerate of Armin’s feelings and wanted to help him out even though he had no obligation to.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want Eren to be around him – because really, the company was nice – but he couldn’t seem to wrap his mind around the idea that someone like Eren just popped into Armin’s life. He didn’t say anything about Eren’s willingness to join him once he returned, broom in hand. Instead, Armin gave him instructions on how to properly clean the bathroom.

“I know it looks really dirty in here, but the bathrooms get scrubbed down every night,” Armin explained. “I don’t know if you’ve met Levi, the manager, but he’s super into cleaning. He’s probably, like, the cleanest person I know. Anyway if we don’t clean the bathrooms right he gets on our cases.”

Eren nodded. “So basically, go hard or go home?”

Armin laughed. “That’s one way to look at it, I suppose. It’s pretty easy though. You just have to scrub a lot.”

“Sounds good,” Eren said. Armin watched for a moment as Eren placed his broom on the floor, furrowing his brow as he moved it up and down. He could see the concentration written all over his face as he scrubbed the bathroom floor furiously, and Armin smiled in admiration.

They didn’t really talk until the entire floor is covered in suds, at which point Armin turned on the faucet again to rinse the vicinity.

“So basically you scrub the floor and then wash away all the cleaning stuff?” Eren asked.

“Yeah,” Armin said, “I mean, you don’t want the Pine Sol to stay on overnight, so you wash it off now.”

“Ah, okay,” Eren said. “I guess that makes sense.”

Armin walked around the bathroom hose in tow, making sure to splash water over every sudsy surface. Eren followed him, taking note of the layout of the locker room. Suddenly, he stopped walking. As Armin turned around and started to ask him what’s up, Eren spoke.

“How would you describe your job of cleaning the bathroom?” he asked – but something’s not quite right. There was something hidden in his face, obscured by a tight-lipped question. Armin can’t tell if it’s good or bad, either, which worried him a little.

“Uh…” Armin started. “Kind of tedious, I guess.”

Eren bit his lower lip. “Would you describe it as… crappy?”

Ah. So that’s it. Eren’s look of pain was just him trying to suppress his laughter caused by a dumb pun. He had to admit, though, it was pretty funny. After a couple of seconds Armin laughed along, the two of them ending up side by side doubled over in laughter.

“That – that was possibly one of the stupidest and funniest things I’ve heard all day,” Armin wheezed.

“Thanks,” Eren managed, “I try.”

They stayed like that for a while, laughing and clutching their sides. After Armin regained his breath, he checked his watch and saw that it’s 8:45. “Ah, shoot,” he said. “We close in fifteen minutes and we still have to squeegee.”

“If we don’t hurry up and clean, urine trouble!”

Armin turned around to face Eren and stared him dead in the eye before howling with laughter again, taking the thirty seconds to collect himself before continuing on cleaning the locker room. The next couple of minutes was spent in relative silence with a few shared moments of chuckles sprinkled in between, and by the time 8:50 rolled around the bathroom was clean and dry.

“Thanks for helping me clean, Eren,” Armin said. “It's nice to have another person.”

“No problem,” he replied. “It was my pleasure.”

“Really, though. Cleaning the bathrooms harbors a sort of unique kind of wanting to cry from boredom.” Eren laughed. “For someone who’s not so good at swimming, you sure can clean a bathroom.” Before Eren could respond, Armin got an idea. It was perfect, he thought, why hadn’t he come up with this before?

He would give Eren swimming lessons.

For free, of course. He’d never offer someone swim lessons if he didn’t intended on doing it free of charge.  Usually, he’d just wait for people to come to him. But this – this was different. Eren would benefit from learning how to swim. He’d be much less likely to need saving, _and_ he’d be able to give Jean a fair race. It wasn’t like Armin to force his ideas upon others, but this one was different. This one was worth it… now he’d just have to get Eren on board.

“So, uh,” Armin started, shuffling awkwardly. “Do you wanna learn how to swim?”

Eren blinked. “I guess, yeah,” he said, “I’ve never really tried before though.”

“How about I teach you?” Armin asked.

“Really?” Eren asked incredulously. “You’d teach me how to swim?”

“If you’d let me,” Armin said. “I’ve already read done all of my summer homework and read all of the books I borrowed from the library, and as much as I love Dickens I’d really rather not read his complete works for the fourth time in the last two weeks, so…”

“So you’re serious?” Eren asked, eyes wide.

“Yeah,” Armin replied. “I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t.”

“Awesome!” Eren said as he punched the air. “I’ll be the best student ever, I promise!”

Armin laughed. “That’s great, then! When do you want to start?”

“Is tomorrow too soon?” Eren asked eagerly. “I wanna be able to kick Jean’s ass as soon as possible.”

“That works,” Armin said as the two of them approached the supplies closet. He took Eren’s broom and placed it inside of the closet, slamming the door closed when the brooms threatened to jump out. He smiled sheepishly at Eren as he picked up his bucket once more, placing it in the back office.

“What’s this about kicking my ass?” Jean asked with a cocky grin on his face.

“Armin’s gonna teach me to swim and I’m gonna beat your ass!” Eren exclaimed.

“Really, Armin?” Jean asked. “You’re gonna invite this maniac to the pool on a regular basis?”

“I guess so, yeah,” Armin shrugged.

“Whatever, Jaeger,” Jean said. “You’ll never be able to beat me.”

And with that, the three of them spent the next fifteen minutes closing the pool. He locked the cashboxes away, putting them in a locker in the girl's bathroom. Slowly, he made his way around the pool grounds, reorganizing the deck chairs that had been displaced throughout the day, wiping his hands against his shorts when he finished. 

Armin unlocked his bike from the rack as Eren and Jean piled into Jean’s truck. They waved goodbye to each other and headed home for the night, excited for what the coming days would bring.

 

 

The beginning of the next day was fairly uneventful, thankfully. There were no saves or troublesome children, just the rule-abiding regulars who reminded Armin that not every patron was a jerk. Before his third up, he remembered that he was giving Eren a lesson in about thirty minutes.

 “Hey Marco?” Armin said, tapping the older boy on the shoulder.

“Yeah?” Marco said, turning around to look Armin in the eyes.

“I’m gonna give a swim lesson today, so if someone by the name of Eren comes in just let me know, alright?” Marco nodded.

“Wait, Eren as in Eren Jaeger?” Marco asked.

“I guess? I don’t actually know his last name. I had to save him yesterday…?”

“Yeah, so Eren Jaeger,” Marco confirmed. “You’re teaching him to swim?”

“I hope to,” Armin said. “He’s not paying for lessons or anything but I’d rather not have to save him from drowning again.”

Marco laughed. “I still can’t believe that happened! I always knew Eren wasn’t one to back down from a challenge, but I thought that he’d at least consider the fact that he can’t swim…”

“You’d think, right?” Armin said jokingly. “Anyway if he comes in, let me know.”

“Alright,” Marco said with a smile. He turned back to the front desk and watched as patrons entered clubhouse, greeting them with a friendly smile and a kind hello.

Armin made his way to the chair and gave a small wave to Jean as he climbed down the ladder. Armin quickly took his place and muttered a “thanks” before continuing on his shift, nervous for the upcoming swim lesson.

It wasn’t that Armin wasn’t good at giving swim lessons, it’s just that he didn’t give them that often. Over the past decade of coming to the pool Armin had mastered the form and technique behind the strokes, and while he could convey the movements well enough he had trouble getting his students to grasp the concepts. It wasn’t him so much as the five year old kids who couldn’t seem to wrap their head around the idea of keeping their nose unplugged underwater.

Still, he was worried. Eren seemed incredibly eager to learn how to swim and Armin didn’t want to let him down.

He turned his attention to the water, scanning the pool deck for trouble. The first couple of minutes of his up passed fairly quickly as he allowed himself to get distracted by the thought of Eren coming back, but after that he decided that he had to buckle down and focus on the patrons. It’s his job, after all.

Many people tended to underestimate how boring lifeguarding can be. Popular media glamorized it as something fast-paced and dangerous. At the beach, maybe – but at a private pool? Not so much. Armin’s only ever saved three people – two, up until the day before.

So when almost every patron knew how to swim, it could get pretty boring up on the chair. Armin spent the majority of his time critiquing the stroke of the lap swimmers, glancing around every couple of seconds to the free swim areas in case trouble came up.

Fifteen minutes into his shift he noticed that Eren had arrived. He looked as good as he did the day before, Armin noticed, if a little bit more eager. His face lit up as he saw Armin in the chair, waving at him from across the deck. Armin waved back, about to shout a greeting when he noticed a kid running across the pool area.

“Walk!” Armin yelled. The kid slowed down marginally, but his pace was still slightly faster than that of an Olympic speedwalker. He sighed. Some kids never change.

By the time his thirty minutes were up, Eren was already in the water. He waited patiently as Armin approached him, greeting him once more once he sat down at the edge of the pool.

“You ready?” Armin asked, plunging into the 3ft of water below.

“Hell yeah!” Eren said, slapping the water.

Armin laughed. “Alright,” he said. “I don’t really know where to start, because I don’t know what you already know. So, first question: do you pinch your nose to go underwater?”

“Yeah,” Eren said, chuckling a little. It wasn’t something he wanted to admit, especially at his age, but it was probably not a good piece of information to leave out so he divulged it readily.

“So our first step is to stop doing that,” Armin said curtly. “It’s pretty easy, actually. You just have to let go of the fear that you’ll inhale water by accident.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Eren muttered.

“You’ll see,” Armin said. “Okay. The beauty of swimming is that you and the water work together. You pull and maneuver yourself through the water so you can move gracefully, but in order for that to happen you have to trust it first. So I’m going to ask you to put your face in the water.”

“What?” Eren asked, eyes wide.

“It isn’t that bad, I promise,” Armin said. “Here, I’ll show you.” Armin gave a nod towards Eren before bending over to place his head in the water. He didn’t breathe out; he just let his face sit submerged in the water. He stayed there for a couple of seconds to demonstrate to Eren that it really wasn’t that difficult.

“The hardest part is trusting yourself not to inhale,” Armin said once he lifted his head out of the water. He wiped his wrist against his eyes to clear the excess drops. He looked at Eren and saw his brows furrow, just as they were the night before. He was clearly determined to learn how to swim, Armin knew that much. “You ready?” he asked.

Eren gave a firm nod. “Here goes nothing,” he said as he dunked his head underwater. It took a couple of seconds before he came back up for air, coughing.

“That was good!” Armin exclaimed. He was impressed – although maybe it was because he was used to teaching five years olds, who were much more reluctant to submerge themselves in the water. Still, even his older students didn’t grasp it as quickly as Eren did.

“It was weird, that’s for sure,” Eren said.

“What do you mean?” Armin asked.

“You’re just kind of lying there,” Eren said. “People do this for fun?”

“You’re only saying that because we haven’t gotten to the fun stuff yet."

“Then bring it on!” Eren said, determination set in his eyes. “Well, when you think I’m ready, of course, you’re the teacher after all…”

Armin laughed. “Do you think you’re comfortable with that?” he asked. “It’s pretty important that you feel at ease in the water before we can continue.”

Eren nodded. “If I’m not, then I’m not gonna mention it.”

“Alright then,” Armin said. “Now we’re gonna blow bubbles. It sounds really simple, but it’s the foundation of all swimming. You’ll only be so good if you can’t blow bubbles through your nose.”

Eren was listening intently. If he could, he’d probably be taking notes on every word Armin said. Not for studying purposes, but to help him concentrate. He seemed like that kind of guy.

“So you’re gonna put your face in the water again, but instead of letting it sit there you’re gonna actively blow bubbles through you nose,” Armin explained. “Don’t let all your air out at once, though. Distance swimming isn’t really the objective now, but if you ever need to be underwater for extended periods of time conserving air is crucial.”

Eren nodded. “Can I try?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Armin said. Usually he waited until the very end of the first lesson to let his students blow bubbles underwater, but since Eren was more eager – and also older – than most of his students, he let him give it a try. He watched as Eren took a breath and dunked his head underwater, bubbles appearing at either side of his cheeks. He stayed submerged for a couple of seconds and Armin thought that Eren might’ve had the hang of it, but he suddenly pulled his head back and coughed.

“Ah, crap, crap!” Eren cried, covering his nose with his hands. “It hurts! My nose burns!”

“You accidently took water in,” Armin sighed. “The feeling will go away in a second, no worries.”

'Eren still looked like he was in pain. Armin waited patiently as the resolve returned to Eren’s face and the determination to his eyes. “I’m ready to try again,” Eren announced, putting his hands on his hips.

“Alright!” Armin cheered. “Whenever you want.”

When Eren dunked his head underwater for the second time, he didn’t jerk back up. He stayed there for five, ten seconds before getting up triumphantly, the biggest grin on his face. Armin smiled in return.

“Awesome!” he said. Eren punched the water in celebration, accidently splashing Armin a little.

“Whoops, sorry about that,” Eren said.

Armin shrughed it off. “Okay, there’s one last thing I want to get though today. You’re gonna swim underwater for a bit while blowing bubbles out of your nose.”

“Sounds good,” Eren said. This time, he didn’t wait for Armin’s go-signal to proceed, instead quickly submerging himself in the 3ft. Armin watched as the top of Eren’s head disappeared into the water, staying still momentarily before taking off. Eren pulled himself through the water, large spurts of bubbles surfacing every couple of seconds. He didn’t go very far, or stay under very long, but it was a good start.

Armin waded across the water to congratulate Eren, who was smiling from ear to ear. “That was great!” Armin said. Most of the time, his students can’t go underwater until the second or third lesson. He thought it was Eren’s willingness to learn, mostly, that allowed him to power through each lesson. Plus, he was old enough to know that water wasn’t really something to worry about, even if he had nearly drowned the day before.

“Do it a couple more times and then we’ll be done for today,” Armin said. He wanted to make sure that Eren was comfortable breathing through his nose underwater before his next lesson, as it was a really good stopping point – easy to build on, mostly, and easy to pick up in the next lesson.

“Swim with me!”  Eren said, waving Armin closer. He hesitated. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to swim with Eren, because he did, he was just kind of confused. Most people he taught, even if they have a mutual friend or two, ignored him when he wasn’t teaching them. Not in a bad way, either. It was just that many of them didn’t take interest in befriending their instructor.

Maybe that’s what Armin found so fascinating about Eren – he’s _nice_ , without ever expecting anything in return.

After a moment Armin nodded firmly, putting on his goggles from around his neck. Eren raised an eyebrow as if to ask him if he’s ready, and the two of them submerged together.

The water was nice.

Part of the reason Armin loved being a lifeguard was the unlimited access to the pool. He was able to jump in between ups, during his downtime, and even when he wasn’t working at all. The water provided him with a kind of comfort that was hard to find anywhere else – the sluggishness of controlled movements contributed to a beautiful dance that couldn’t be reproduced on dry land.

In the water, it was just him and his thoughts. He could pay attention to other swimmers if he wanted to, but they didn’t demand enough attention to pull him from his internal monologue. He closed his eyes and it was just him and the water. It was quiet. It was peaceful. It was…

Armin opened his eyes to see Eren making a funny face in front of him, eyes wide open in the pool water and bubbles rising from the sides of his mouth. Armin almost laughed, but instead took it as his cue to surface.

They climbed out of the water and talked casually about the day’s lesson and set up a plan for another the following day. Eren seemed excited, which was good, because sometimes students got a little disillusioned after the first lesson.

“Thanks again, Armin,” Eren said, turning towards him.

“No problem,” Armin said. He was happy to help Eren learn how to swim, and even happier that he’d have something – someone – to occupy his time at the pool.

“Really, though,” Eren said, scratching the back of his neck. “I’ve wanted to learn to swim for a long time, but my dad, he – anyway I’ve never gotten around to it. So thank you.”

They stopped walking momentarily and looked each other in the eyes, a strange silence forming in between them. It wasn’t bad, though, because neither of them looked away. They stayed like that for a second, and Armin blinked.

When he looked into Eren’s eyes, he felt as if he was swimming. Strange.

The next day Eren arrived excited as ever. Armin decided that today they were gonna work on breaststroke, as it was pretty easy to learn once comfortable swimming underwater.

“The idea of breaststroke is to use your arms and legs to pull and push yourself through the water,” Armin explained. “It can be difficult if you don’t time it right, so it took a little practice.” Eren nodded.

“There are two main parts of breaststroke,” he said. “The first is the arms. Watch closely.”

Eren stared intently as Armin lifted his arms intro a streamline position, his right arm mirroring his left perfectly. As he extended his arms fully he rotated his hands so that they were facing outwards of each other, and he began to pull back, making a wide oval-ish shape with his arms. “The trick is not to let your arms fall past your chest, otherwise you’re technically doing the stroke wrong. Not that it really matters, of course, but…” Armin mumbled. “Anyway, you try!”

He watched as Eren tried to mimic the movement, extending his arms a little bit too far outwards when completing the pull. “You’re, uh…” Armin said, trying to find his voice. “Here. Let me help you.”

Armin moved closer to Eren, putting his hands on his wrists. He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks, and maybe he could see pink on Eren’s too, he couldn’t really tell, but – he was trying to teach him how to swim, that’s all this was.

He guided Eren’s arms into a narrower circle, changing his stroke into one that resembled the real thing. As Eren’s arms returned to his chest, Armin’s hands still on his wrists, they were standing so close to each other, and –

“Perfect,” Armin said, voice small.

“Yeah,” Eren breathed.

It took a moment for Armin to release his grip on Eren, smiling as he awkwardly shuffled away from him. He could still feel the heat of Eren’s wrists in his palms.

He cleared his throat. “Why don’t you try doing the stroke in the water, then?” Armin asked.

“Sure thing,” Eren said, although he still seemed a little dazed. Armin wasn’t really sure what just happened between the two of them, but it made him kind of nervous.

He watched as Eren lowered himself into the water, positioning his hands in front of his chest as if he was ready to go. Armin gave him a small nod, letting him know to go whenever he wanted.

Eren lifted his feet from the pool floor and pulled forward, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. He copied them almost exactly and smiled at Armin as he realized that he’s swimming pretty, save for his legs that were just dangling awkwardly.

“That’s good,” Armin told him, watching intently. Eren took a few more pulls. “If you feel like you’re ready, you can start putting your head underwater. Time your breaths so that you come up for air as you shoot your arms forward. Your head should be underwater when you pull, okay?”

Eren nodded in recognition, trying the new moves out almost immediately. It took a couple of tries for him to get it right, as Armin had only _told_ him what to do, but he managed just fine. After a few seconds, he got the timing of the strokes right.

“Nice!” Armin exclaimed. “Now let’s add the kick.” He swam over to the adjacent wall, pulling himself out of the water. “What I’m about to do is gonna look really dumb, but you can’t laugh, okay?”

Eren chuckled. “Not even once?”

Armin shook his head, otherwise ignoring Eren’s question. “The breaststroke kick is pretty intuitive. You pull your knee up and then kick it back down at an outward angle – easy enough, right?” Armin demonstrated with one leg, adding the stroke the second time around. From the pool wall he could see Eren trying to stifle his laughter with little success.

“It wasn’t that funny,” Armin muttered.

“You’re right, you’re right,” Eren said. “You just looked kind of like a yoga master, that’s all.”

Armin laughed as he sat at the edge of the pool, sliding back in. “I’m not a yoga master, but I can teach you how to swim. Can you add the kick to your stroke?”

“Yeah, sure,” Eren said. He launched forward with a pull. His timing with the kick was a little off, but it was passable. Certainly as good as some of Armin’s six year old students.

“That’s pretty good,” Armin said. “You’ve just gotta work on syncing your pull and your kick up with your breathing, and then you’ll be all set for breaststroke.”

“Really?” Eren asked.

“Well, kind of – there’s a whole lot of training that goes into swimming breast fast, but you’ll definitely be able to swim it in no time.” Armin looked at the clock on the clubhouse which read 5:28, meaning that he had about a minute before he had to report to the chair. Had he really lost track of the time so easily? He made a b-line for the ladder.

“Ah, shoot, sorry Eren!” he called. “My up is next!” He walked as fast as he could to the guard office and grabbed his glasses and whistle, as well as a towel. He jogged lightly to the chair at the other side of the pool deck and offered a sheepish apology Marco because he was all of thirty seconds late for his chair time.

Marco laughed as he climbed down the ladder, assuring him that it was no big deal, really, because he saw him giving a lesson to Eren. Regardless, Armin muttered an apology once more as he draped his towel on the lifeguard chair and sat down.

During his up Armin watched as Eren continued to practice his breaststroke, doing small half-laps across the pool almost constantly for the next thirty minutes. Of course, Armin divided his attention between Eren and the rest of the patrons, but he found his eyes idly wandering to Eren whenever possible.

His up concluded with nothing notable happening. While it did not pass quickly, it passed soon enough.

When Jean approached the chair to come relieve Armin, Eren was trailing behind. Armin assumed that he had been talking to Jean and had just followed him to wherever he was going, but regardless it left him with a good feeling.

Once Armin got down, Eren’s eyes were on him. Armin was startled a little by the intensity in Eren’s eyes, but he quickly regained composure. They started walking back to the clubhouse side by side, Armin clutching his towel, neither of them saying a word.

“Honestly, you’re probably the best student I’ve ever had,” Armin blurted out.

“Really?” Eren said. He seemed so excited by this little triumph, but Armin was glad it meant something to him.

“Yeah,” Armin said. “Those five year olds are stiff competition, but you really blew them out of the water.”

Eren stopped short of the locker room, turning around to face Armin. “Again with the puns?”

“You started it!” Armin said, waving his hands in front of him.

Eren chuckled. “That was a pretty good one,” he admitted. He looked down sheepishly as if he felt guilty that he enjoyed the pun.

“Thanks,” Armin said. “I guess I learned a thing or two from you.”

“Oh, there’s a lot more to learn,” Eren said. “If you stick around long enough, soon you’ll be fighting yourself to keep your puns contained. You’ll overflow, the weight of them all will bring you down. You’ll have no choice but to say them all. You think I wanted to end up like this?”

Armin laughed again, walking towards the guard office as Eren split towards the locker room.

“That was a great lesson, by the way,” Eren said. “I really appreciate you helping me out with this.”

Armin nodded with a smile. “No problem,” he replied. “You’re a really good student! I think you’ll get the hang of swimming really soon.”

“I hope so,” Eren said. “Then I’ll be one day closer to kicking Jean Kirchstein’s ass.”

“Of course, Eren.”

From the back of the pool deck, Armin could hear a vague _What’d you say, Jaeger?_ and he laughed. The pool had such a controlled chaos and it put him at ease, at least for a while.

 

 

Armin was in the office when he heard what sounded like Eren yelping in pain followed by assorted curse words. Concerned, Armin left the office to check and see what happened only to find Eren hopping on one foot clutching the other in his hands. Armin could sort of see some red peeking from beneath Eren’s fingers and slowly pieced together what must’ve happened.

“Did you stub your toe?” Armin asked – not that he doesn’t already know the answer, but he was hoping for a bit of a backstory.

“Hell no!” Eren said through gritted teeth.

Armin laughed. “It kinda looks like you did,” he said, moving closer.

“Well, that’s not what happened,” Eren explained. “I was walking in the boys’ locker room as you do and the cement attacked my big toe!”

“I’ve heard of that happening, actually,” Armin said. “Granted the last person to tell me that was four.”

“Ha-ha,” Eren said, “very funny.” He slowly lowered his foot to the ground and shifted his weight slowly, trying to see if he was able to walk on it properly.

“Do you want first aid?” Armin asked. “There’s a bit of blood.”

“I guess so, yeah,” Eren said.

“Follow me,” Armin said as he walked into the back office. He motioned to the cot sitting in the corner of the room and asked Eren to take a seat there. Armin turned his attention to the supplies closet where he rummaged around for a couple of seconds in search of the first-aid kit. When he found it, he pulled the case out and walked over to where Eren was waiting.He didn’t look like he was in a whole lot of pain. He was leaning back against the walls of the office and staring at the ceiling, it seemed.

Armin kind of enjoyed giving first aid. While he would never wish pain upon another person, the sense of purpose that he felt whenever he helped an injured patron bandage up their wound gave him satisfaction. At school, he wasn’t particularly the most talented, or the most useful (although he was widely considered the smartest) – but at the pool, everything he did from lifeguarding to first aid made him feel invaluable. And to the patrons, he was.

Armin cleared his throat.

“I’m gonna disinfect it using hydrogen peroxide,” Armin said. “It might sting a little, but I don’t know for sure. Honestly, I haven’t used to stuff myself in a couple of years.” Eren nodded.

“If I put a band-aid on it, you won’t be able to go back in the pool,” Armin said. Sometimes kids got caught up on this little deal and started crying, unable to decide between comfort and time in the water. Eren seemed more reasonable than that, though.

“That’s fine,” he said. “I was gonna leave soon, anyway.”

“Ah, okay.”

Armin wrapped a bandage around Eren’s toe in silence, wiping around the edges once it was applied. He took off his gloves and threw away the wrapper, turning back to Eren once he was done. He was looking down, almost like he was embarrassed. He wasn’t ashamed, was he?

“You’re good to go,” Armin said.

“Alright, thanks,” Eren said as he stood up. He gave a small wave as he hobbled out of the back office, presumably leaving for the night, never once meeting Armin’s eyes.

The silence hung in the air and it gave Armin a strange feeling in his stomach. It wasn’t happy, but it wasn’t sad, either. It just was. He wondered idly what it could be as he returned to his position at the front desk, eager for the day to end.

 

 

Eren came to the pool the following day with a girl. She had jet black hair and red sunglasses, showing no outward emotion. Her lips were pressed to a thin line, but Armin could tell that she was absolutely gorgeous.

Armin watched as the pair approach the front office and sighed. He couldn’t really put a name to the feeling in his stomach, the one that he got when he noticed the girl behind Eren. It wasn’t jealously because Armin hadn’t even considered wanting to be with the boy beyond surface-level attraction and wanting to be his friend. It was probably more similar to disappointment, he thought. Anyone would be disappointed to find that an attractive person had a significant other.

“Hey, Armin!” Eren called, waving his hand in the air.

Armin gave a hollow laugh. “Back again?” he asked, pulling out the guest sign-in form.

“Yep,” Eren said. “I brought my sister. Armin, this is Mikasa.”

Armin felt a pang of relief in his chest. _Sister?_ But they look so different – “She’s adopted,” Eren explained. Armin looked towards Mikasa as she gave Armin a small nod.

“Oh, okay,” Armin said. “Nice to meet you.”

“Same to you,” she replied. Her voice was calm, cool. She seemed kind of serious.

“She doesn’t need a lesson, by the way,” Eren said as he approached the front office. “She already knows how to swim.”

“I’ll just watch, today,” Mikasa said. “Don’t mind me.” She disappeared into the women’s locker room and Armin exchanged a glance with Eren.

“She’s like that to everyone, don’t worry. That’s just how she talks,” Eren said with a smile.

“Do you wanna get started on your lesson, then?”  Armin asked, grabbing his goggles from the guard table.

“Yeah!” Eren said as he entered the boys’ locker room.

Eren and Armin decided to work on the more intermediate strokes. He started Eren on backstroke, even though it wasn’t really the easiest stroke to learn.  He thought that Eren would be up for the challenge, though, so he went along with it.

They entered the water side by side.

“You know what backstroke is, right?” Armin asked as he placed his goggle around his neck.

“Of course!” Eren said, eyes growing wide with realization. “Is that what we’re gonna do today?”

“I think so, yeah,” Armin replied. He could see the enthusiasm creep through Eren’s face, and it was infectious. He could feel the corners of his lips tugging into a smile.

“Great,” Eren said. “Just tell me what to do and I’ll try my best.”

They wade a little deeper into the water, near the 4ft zone where there weren’t as many swimmers. He wanted the area to be fairly clear, as it could be difficult to teach someone to float on their back if the water was disrupted.

“The first step is to get comfortable being on your back in the water,” Armin said. “It’s a lot easier than it sounds. In general, people float, so any fear you have of sinking is purely made up.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Eren muttered splaying out his hands in the water by his waist.

“It can be if you just relax,” Armin assured him. “Watch.”

Armin leaned back into the water, closing his eyes as his hair touched the pool. He lifted his feet off of the ground and brought them to surface level, entire body resting between the water and the air. He opened his eyes and glanced at Eren, who was watching intently. “Your turn,” he said, not moving from his current position.

He watched from the corner of his eye as Eren mimicked the movement, lowering his torso onto the water before almost falling into it completely. His eyes grew wide for a second before he regained his composure, lifting his legs off the bottom of the pool. Eren turned his head to look at Armin and smiled, wide and bright.

They lay on their backs for a minute, maybe two, before Armin decided it was time to get on with the lesson.

By the end of the forty-five minutes, Eren could nearly swim backstroke.

It’s impressive, really, how fast Eren caught on. He was more than willing to move onto the next topic as soon as possible, allowing for fast progress in a short amount of time. He quickly grasped the mechanics behind the simple arm rotation of the backstroke and the flutter kicks, although he did have some trouble with the hip rotation. Not that it mattered, though. Armin still had some trouble with that himself.

They ended the lesson with a high five before Armin had to go back to work.

 

 

The best part about his job, Armin decided, was the amount of time he was able to spend reading. When he opened the pool, there were usually at least thirty minutes of uninterrupted reading before he had to go up in the chair – and even then, it was usually only one or two people who wanted to dip their toes in. Armin usually spent the first two hours of his day reading, with the occasional up.

But recently, Eren had been coming to the pool earlier and earlier in light of learning that Armin often got the morning shifts. He didn’t usually try to disrupt Armin’s reading because he knew that Armin enjoyed it so much. Instead, he rested his head in his hands and his elbows on the front desk and watched Armin as he read.

Most of the time, Armin hardly noticed Eren. He was so absorbed in his anthology of Dickens’s work that he didn’t even notice Eren at the front desk until five minutes after he’d arrived.

Today, Armin looked up from his book and noticed Eren staring at him intently. He looked like he was concentrating. Armin laughed, startled by the scene. “Don’t you have anything better to do?” Armin asked, looking up from his book.

Eren blinked. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, it wasn’t that I mind you being here, it’s just that you’re here as often as I am. And I’m paid to be here,” Armin said. He paused. “That came out meaner than I intended it to be. Not that I intended for it to be mean, really, but – sorry.”

Eren laughed, scratching the back of his head. “No worries, Armin.” Eren said softly. He smiled at Armin, big and bright. “Mikasa and I don’t have much else to do. My dad, Grisha, doesn’t like us to be home during the day, and being here sure beats any other place we’d be. Before Jean invited me here we went to the grocery store every day. I don’t even know how to cook – that’s just how boring it got with just the two of us.”

“That makes sense, then,” Armin said, placing his book face down on the office table. He moved to the chair behind the front desk to get closer to Eren, abandoning his book in favor of conversation. He rested his head in his hands as Eren launched into another story about his misadventures with Jean, Marco, and Mikasa. “This one is wild,” he started. “So once, Jean and Marco had the bright idea of breaking into the zoo at one in the morning…”

Armin hummed as Eren recounted the crazy event. He loved Eren’s eyes. They reminded him of everything great about summer – the pool water, the blue skies, the green trees. He felt comforted when he looked in them because they represented a season that brings him solace. He was away from school and surrounded by people he adored. He didn’t have to be anyone he wasn’t or do anything he didn’t want to do.

“… so I was like, ‘Dude there’s no way you could possibly eat _that_ many pizza bites in one go’…”

In the summer, he’s free.

“… and then Jean punched through the fence and it turned out that it wasn’t even locked! Can you believe that? He got like twenty splinters in his knuckles, anyway…”

It made sense that there’s a sort of liberation Armin felt when he looked in Eren’s eyes. He wasn’t afraid to be who he was around Eren because Eren understood. He didn’t ask questions and he didn’t make dumb comments; he just _got_ it. Hardly anyone just _got_ Armin – not even Marco, and he’d known him since sixth grade.

“…long story short, I’m no longer allowed within fifty feet of the giraffe exhibit at the zoo. You’d think they’d have let it go – I probably made the giraffe’s life so much better with my pen modifications, anyway,” Eren laughed.

Eren ended up following Armin to the lifeguard chair, pulling up a deck chair beside the lifeguard station as soon as Ymir got down. Even though his wild story had ended several minutes ago, he didn’t make an effort to restart or rekindle the conversation. He let the silence sit between them like the humidity in the air, not actively pleasant or unpleasant, just a fact they had to deal with.

After the first minute Armin pretended that he wasn’t at all intimidated by Eren’s presence beside him. They’re just hanging out as friends, as friends, as friends, he chanted in his mind. Eren was bored and Armin was here so they were just hanging out as _friends_. Friends sit in silence at the side of the pool all the time. Completely normal. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Armin decided to alternate his focus between the two lap swimmers in the pool. He critiqued their strokes and cheered them on as they swam together side by side, as if they were racing. He let himself get into it. He tried to will himself to forget that Eren was right beside him.

He eventually fell victim to his curiosity and peaked to the side only to find Eren looking right back at him. He smiled at him, blissfully unaware of the trouble he was causing him, and Armin turned his head around as quickly as possible. He put his sunglasses on, as if that would help him settle down at all.

He gulped. This was going to be a long thirty minutes.

 

 

Mikasa arrived about an hour later, when Armin was on break. They, along with Eren, decided to jump in the water to unwind for a bit before Armin’s next up.

The amazing thing about Armin’s friendship with Mikasa and Eren was that they’d sort of included him in their secret, unspoken language. He could exchange a glance with Mikasa and know that she’d like to buy ice cream, or lock eyes with Eren and tell that he’s thinking of a really bad pun.

It’s amazing, really. He’d never had friends like them before.

And so they formed a pseudo-circle in the 3ft area of water, their bodies facing each other and their backs to the world.  “Dude, I’ve gotten so tan since I started coming here,” Eren said, eyes wide as he glanced behind his back, observing his skin color.

“It’s amazing what happens when you actually go outside,” Misaka muttered. Armin laughed, and Eren pouted. The three of them stood in the 3ft, the water barely reaching their waists.

Amidst the laughter, Armin barely noticed Eren pull his arm back and slap the surface of the water, soaking both Armin and Mikasa. They stared in silence for a moment before returning the attack, splashing Eren simultaneously from two angles.

“Oh, it’s on,” Eren said through gritted teeth.  The three of them began splashing each other furiously, covering their eyes and stifling their laughter in an attempt to gain the upper hand.

In that moment, Armin has never felt more alive. Usually his days at the pool were characterized by monotony, not unpredictability. But with Eren, there was this air of newness. His days at the pool didn’t blend together anymore. He could remember distinct, clear instances over the last couple of weeks that made him wonder why he ever thought that the pool could be _boring_.

And it was all thanks to Eren.

As a sign of gratitude, Armin splashed Eren extra hard and smiled more brightly than he had in the past year.

 

 

Armin opened the pool the following day.

It was him and Marco that time around, with Levi dropping by about an hour into the day to do some office work. Nothing much happened for the next couple of hours except for a small injury involving a girl and a slide.

It was about two in the afternoon when Armin noticed a tall man with long, dark hair approaching the front desk with Eren and Mikasa trailing shortly behind. Eren didn’t look as happy as he usually did – he looked pretty tense, with his movements stiff and his fists clenched tight. Mikasa looked about the same, although she appeared to be watching Eren through her peripheral vision.

Armin looked towards Eren for an answer, an inkling as to what was going on, but was surprised to find that Eren looked away, lips pressed tight.

The man gave a small smile as he stopped in front of the desk. “I’d like to purchase a membership to the pool,” he declared.

Armin blinked. “O-okay, sir, is it a family rate?” he asked as he searched beneath the desk for the membership forms.

“Do you have anything available for two patrons only?” the man responded, watching Armin’s every movement. It was kind of scary, he admitted. While the man himself didn’t seem to be super imposing, his stature – and relentless stare – unnerved Armin.

“That’s the double plan, - “

“I’d like that, then.” The man nodded his head decisively as Armin pulled out the membership form.

“If you’d just write down the name, address, and date of birth of the members on this form and make out a check to the pool, that’d be great,” Armin muttered. He glanced up to see Eren and Mikasa looking at each other, as if exchanging unspoken words. Eren caught his eyes and gave a small smile of reassurance.

The man in front of him took a pen from out of his pocket and began to write down all the information necessary.

“Since the season’s already half over, I’m going to go ahead and take $100 off my check,” the man said. “Think of it as the cost being prorated.”

Armin was so shocked he couldn’t do much else besides nod, slowly taking the papers from the man in front of him. “I’m Grisha, by the way,” he said as he turned around towards the parking lot. “Are you Armin?”

“Y-Yes – “

“Take this, then,” he said as he stuffed two twenty dollar bills in the boy’s hands. Before Armin could object, he cut him off. “Thank you for giving my son lessons.” And with that, he walked away.

“No problem,” Armin muttered, staring at the money in his hand. He looked up and sees Eren and Mikasa walking towards him. Once they reached the desk they stood in silence.

“That was our father,” Mikasa said.

“Nice to meet him, I guess.”

“He can be a little intimidating, I apologize for that.” She looked at Armin like she was genuinely sorry for the actions of her father, even though they really hadn’t been that bad.

Eren scratched the back of his head. “At least we’re members of the pool now?” he said, laughing awkwardly.

The rest of the day went on as normal, despite the run-in with Grisha Jaeger. Armin felt a little bit lighter knowing that Eren was allowed to come whenever he wanted to now.

 

 

The next day was Eren and Armin’s last lesson. Up until that point Armin had been teaching Eren privately, not really integrating other people into their lessons. Today, though, he planned a surprise for Eren in celebration of the progress he’d made.

They sat side by side at the edge of the pool at the 5ft end. Eren watched as Armin explained the plan for the day, nodding every once in a while to show that he was listening. His hands were gripping the wall at either side of his legs, allowing him to lean in a little. Armin pretended not to notice.

“Instead of having you swim by yourself today, Jean’s gonna race you.”

“What!” Eren exclaimed, so surprised he almost fell in the water.

“It’s your chance to redeem yourself, to reclaim your glory,” Armin said, smiling. “Or at the very least finish your lap.”

“You coulda told me your plan earlier, Armin,” Eren said, looking away. When he met his eyes again, there was a newfound determination. “There’s a whole psych-up regime I go through whenever I’m about to kick Jean’s ass, but I guess I could do an abbreviated version…” he trailed off.

Armin placed his hand on Eren’s shoulder, giving him a reassuring squeeze. “You’ll do fine,” he said, letting his hand linger for a little while longer.

They looked at each other in silence for a couple of moments. Eren began to smile, obviously relaxed by Armin’s touch.

“You look kind of sunburned,” Eren said. “Y’know, on your cheeks.”

Armin laughed lightly. “I’m a lifeguard,” he said, voice soft, “it’s an occupational hazard.”

“I guess so,” Eren chuckled. In this light, Eren looked angelic. The setting sun was peaking through the trees, leaving shadows of branches and leaves on the pool floor. The sky gave off this sort of orange-ish light that made everything seem so clean and pure, even if the sun was in Armin’s eyes. He loved days like these – beautiful, and with good company.

Suddenly, Jean approached from behind and kneed Eren in the back, pushing him in the water.

“Hey!” Armin said, trying not to sound so amused. He turned to face Jean, looking up to meet his eyes. “Pushing’s against the rules, Jean. You know that.”

“Is it pushing if I don’t use my hands?” Jean countered as he crossed his arms.

“Well, yes – “

“That’s what I thought,” Jean said. “Wait. Shit. I thought that was gonna end differently.”

Armin laughed as Eren’s head popped up from under the water, accompanied by a huge splash aimed at Jean.

“You ready to lose, Jaeger?”

“Not without a fight,” Eren said, gritting his teeth.

Their rivalry was weird. They didn’t actually hate each other, Armin thought, but it tended to look like they did. They got some sort of odd, sadistic pleasure in giving each other a hard time. Armin tried not to think about it that often.

“I’m gonna blow the whistle and then you’ll start, okay?” They both nodded vigorously, Eren pulling himself from the water and repositioning himself at the edge of the pool. Jean did a few stretches, pretending to loosen up a little. Eren, noticing this, did the same. Jean smirked.

“Ready…” They lower themselves into the diving position. “Set…”they pull back a little, giving them leverage. Armin placed the whistle in his mouth and blew, the two of them getting started with a splash.

Armin smiled to himself as Eren began to trail behind. The problem now wasn’t that he couldn’t swim, but that he wasn’t strong enough to swim as fast as Jean did. They were swimming breaststroke, so it was a quiet race, but a race nonetheless.

Jean ended up finishing fifteen seconds before Eren, much to his delight. As soon as Eren touched the wall at the other side of the pool he stood up, splashing the water around him in celebration.

He swam across the pool without drowning.

Armin rushed over to the other side to greet him. Upon his arrival, Eren was already out of the pool and dancing around. In the heat of the moment he wrapped his arms around Armin, who was clearly startled by the action. Slowly, Armin returned the hug.

This was nice, he decided. Even Eren did get him soaking wet.

After a couple of seconds Armin was released from Eren’s grasp and they smiled at each other, unsure of what to say. He was kind of glad that Eren interrupted his thoughts.

“So I know that the lessons are finished now, but, um, I still wanna hang around you a lot. If that’s okay.”

It took a moment for Armin to process what Eren had just told him. “That’s fine,” Armin said, smiling. “I’d like it if you stuck around, too.”

 

 

Within the next hour mother nature decided to let it all out, releasing a terrible downpour on the pool and its patrons. Most people decided to leave as soon as Ymir blew the whistle to show that she couldn’t see the bottom of the pool, effectively ruining everyone’s pool days. Ymir smirked in satisfaction as a couple of pool members cursed her very existence, leaving as soon as the majority of the patrons left the pool grounds.

With the pool cleared out, Armin didn’t have much to worry about. Most people didn’t come back after a rainstorm like that. The next couple of hours pass without anything outstanding happening, which was fine by Armin – he had never been one for surprises, anyway. By 8 o’clock, there was no one left in the water and Armin hoped he wouldn’t have to do his last up. After all, the only patrons left in the vicinity were ones that were washing up and getting ready to leave – well, them and Eren.

Eren appeared at the front desk and put his head in his hand. “Hey, Armin,” he said, voice alluding to some mischief.

Armin glanced up from his book. “Yes, Eren?”

“I wanna go swimming.”

Armin gaped at Eren, placing his book down on the table. Armin had already cleaned his bathroom and Ymir was cleaning hers, and they were both hoping to close early tonight. “No you don’t,” Armin said.

“But I do.”

“C’mon, Eren, we were gonna leave early tonight!”

“Well, I’m a paying patron and I’d like to use the pool,” Eren said before adding a tiny, pathetic “please.”

“Fine. I guess you’re right,” Armin said as he grabbed his whistle. He walked out of the guard office and towards the chair when he saw Eren dashing in front of him and straight into the pool ahead, jumping into the water in a cannonball. As he surfaced, Armin blew the whistle. “No running!” he laughed as he approached the chair. He climbed into position and took a seat, resting his head in his hand as Eren splashed around the pool.

It was kind of adorable, really.

Eren was the heat wave in the middle of May that came so suddenly, so unexpectedly, that everyone was caught off guard. He was the force of nature that reminds everyone that yes, summer was here, and yes, it was gonna be like this for a while.

Armin loved the summer.

He loved the heat, the humidity, the thunderstorms and the rain. He loved the intensity with which it dominated every aspect of people’s lives, leaving nothing untouched. He loved how unforgiving, uninhibited it was.

Eren reminded him of summer. He was warm in every sense of the word – no wonder Armin had taken such a liking to him.

He realized this in the last three minutes of his up. He hummed to himself as he watched Eren laugh.

After blowing the final whistle, Armin waved to Eren, who decided to stay out on the pool deck. Armin made his way to the guard office. Jean, who was standing nearby, looked at Armin expectantly. Armin awkwardly cleared his throat and averted his eyes.

“So…?” Jean offered, his arms folded across his chest.

“So, Eren…” Armin trailed off.

“Eren? Flaming homosexual. Extremely gay. Extremely obnoxious, but extremely gay.”

“Okay,” Armin said, meeting Jean’s gaze. A sudden resolve swept over him, and he slammed his fist on the table beside him perhaps a bit too hard. “Okay!”

It was a quiet realization. Armin hadn’t offered to teach Eren how to swim out of the kindness of his heart, not really – while it certainly played a role in his decision to actually give lessons, it didn’t have much to do with why he wanted them to happen so much in the first place. Since the first day he met Eren all he has wanted to do was spend time with him. It wasn’t a longing for friendship – Armin found that in Marco and Christa. It was a longing for Eren.

So that’s what it was, Armin thought. He smiled to himself as he buried his head in his hands, laughing hollowly.

“You’ve got it bad, Armin,” Jean said, smile tugging at the side of his mouth.

“You’re right, I do,” Armin said.

“Are you gonna do something about it?” Jean asked.

Armin shrugged, lifting his head from his hands. “Who knows,” Armin muttered. He could feel his cheeks heating up, color undoubtedly tinting his cheeks. Whether telling Eren how he felt was something worth doing, Armin had yet to decide. He didn’t want to risk his friendship with Eren over something that he could probably get over easily enough.

“Ah, well,” Jean said as he grabbed his whistle from the table. “I asked out Marco the other day.”

Armin’s eyes went wide. “Really? What’d he say?”

“He said yes, just like you said he would,” Jean said, smiling. There was a pause. “I dunno what’s gonna happen with you and Eren,” he continued, “but like you said, who knows.”

Jean shrugged as he walked out of the guard office, leaving Armin alone with his thoughts. He heard Jean and Eren yelling out on the pool deck and gave a wistful smile.

Of all the things he’d expected to come out of this summer, he wasn’t expecting this.

As he finished the remainder of the closing duties, Armin eventually began to notice that he was being watched. Eren was perched at the front desk, head resting on his hand with a lazy smile playing on his lips.

“We’re having a guard night tomorrow after we close the pool,” Armin said. Eren perked up as he realized that Armin’s talking to him, apparently having been lost in his thoughts. “You can come if you want. You’re not a guard, but you’re here often enough that you’re welcome to join us.”

Eren blinked. “Really?”

Armin nodded. “I’d – We’d love to have you there.”

“Awesome!” Eren exclaimed with a smile. “I’ll be there,” he said. Shortly after, he announced that he had to leave and grabbed his bike from the bike rack, pedaling away from the pool property. Armin was left with a smile on his face and Eren in his thoughts.

During the summer, Armin’s world was so wonderfully small, so different from the daunting hallways of his school. He was able to go to sleep with a clear mind and genuinely look forward to waking up the next day. And while the positivity that seemed to be omnipresent throughout this entire summer couldn’t be attributed entirely to Eren, Armin was sure he had something to do with it.

 

The next night, Eren showed up an hour before closing. The great thing about guard nights was that everyone came early to help out in order to get the festivities started as soon as possible, so before 8:30 rolled around all the bathrooms were cleaned and the pool nearly ready to close.

Armin finished the last fifteen minute up before blowing the final whistle, excited for what the night had in store. Guard nights were always really fun because there was no reason to have anyone watching the water, since they could all save each other’s lives.

Plus, they could break the rules if they wanted to.

As soon as the last patron leaved the pool, Armin turned off the front lights and locked the doors to make sure that nobody wandered in by accident. When Armin walked out of the clubhouse, he saw Connie and Sasha struggling to push each other in the pool and Jean and Marco sharing a raft in the 4ft area. Ymir was carrying Christa on her back around the pool deck, and Eren was standing in the middle of it all.

He looked surprised.

“What, you thought being a lifeguard was all work and no play?” Armin asked playfully.

“Well, no, it’ s just that I never thought you guys would have such a…” he trailed off, trying to find the right words.

“Blatant disregard for the rules?” Armin supplied. Eren laughed in response. “Well, as long as Levi doesn’t see us doing something disgustingly wrong he won’t get mad at us for it.”

They started walking towards the water, side by side. “Has anyone ever done something like that?” Eren asked curiously.

“Once, Jean, Connie, and Sasha took a tub of hand soap from the supplies closet and rubbed it all over themselves before going down the slide,” Armin said, chuckling at the memory. It was probably one of the more exciting things he’d ever done at the pool – while he didn’t participate in the shenanigans himself, he was thoroughly impressed by the speed with which they slipped down the slide and how sudsy the water got within the next couple of minutes. “Honestly, it looked really fun. I think Levi just got mad that they were wasting cleaning supplies.”

“Typical,” Eren said, rolling his eyes. “Just like Levi to stop others from having some good, _clean_ fun.”

Armin stopped walking entirely and stares at Eren. “You did not,” he said, mouth gaping.

“I think I just did,” Eren said, smiling shyly. He looked down.

“You went _so_ long without a pun, and now…?” Armin said. He lightly punched Eren’s arms to show him that he was kind of annoyed but also incredibly impressed by his dumb pun. Eren looked at him, acting like he was hurt while running his hand over his forearm.

“Gotta stay true to my roots,” he said sheepishly.

Eren and Armin jumped in the pool, eventually making their way over to the 5ft area. Armin had to stand on his tippy-toes in order to keep his head out of the water, and Eren chuckled at the sight (despite being only a couple of inches taller than him). He watched intently as Armin started to tread water, lifting his feet of the ground and keeping himself afloat by kicking.

There was something hanging in the air between them, something that they’d been meaning to say. Armin didn’t entertain the thought of acting on it, though, because he didn’t want to deal with the consequences of making a move on Eren should the results be less than ideal. He was fine being friends with Eren, if that was all they would ever be. But he wanted more.

It’s kind of selfish, he thought. Eren was probably only going to come to the pool once that entire summer had Armin not offered him swimming lessons for the sole purpose of wanting to be in his company. And once Grisha bought Eren and Mikasa a membership, things seemed to get a little more serious. Like Eren wasn’t just another summer storm that would leave as fast as it came.

It was a weird thought.

Armin was so caught up in his mind that he didn’t notice Eren whispering his name. Eventually Eren gave up and started to splash him, jolting Armin from his haze. Once Armin met Eren’s stare he started to grin mischievously.

“You wanna start this again?” Armin asked, winding his hand back.

“I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t been aware of the consequences,” he replied coolly.

All chaos broke loose.

The two of them began splashing each other so furiously that Armin couldn’t really see what was going on anymore, instead aiming for whatever made a movement. They continued on with their battle for several seconds before Armin decided to take it to the next level, throwing his hands on Eren’s shoulder and lifting himself up from out of the water.

Eren stopped splashing momentarily, taking a second to process what Armin had just done. In response, he put his hands on Armin’s waist and tossed Armin away, was unable to do so because of Armin’s tight grip on his shoulders. They stayed in this position for a while, Eren pushing Armin away and Armin holding on tighter. Once it finally seemed like Eren was about to succeed, Armin wrapped his legs around Eren’s waist, securing his position.

It took them a couple of seconds to realize the position they were in. Suddenly, they stopped moving all together. Armin looked down to see Eren staring up at him, wide eyed. He could almost hear him gulp. What came next was instinctual.

He lowered himself slowly so that he was six, five, four, three, two inches above Eren’s lips. He could feel their breaths mingle with each other, saying their first _hello_ and _how are you_ and _this is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time_. Armin closed his eyes and let his lips brush against Eren’s, slowly and softly at first. They let each other get accustomed to the other’s lips, tasting vaguely of chlorine and something that reminded Armin of summer.

Eren was the first to press his lips into Armin’s harder, and Armin eagerly returned the favor. He let his arms slide around Eren’s neck as he tightened his legs around his waist, settling into a more natural position as Eren pulled Armin closer.

They stayed like this for a while, moving slightly as it suited them and ignoring the cat-calling and whistle-blowing coming from those around them. Eren smiled against Armin’s lips as Jean yelled “Get it!” from across the pool, eventually pulling away with a smile.

Armin could feel the intense blush that was inevitably spreading across his cheeks and he smiled sheepishly. Neither of them let go of the other.

“That was, uh, nice,” Eren said breathlessly.

“Yeah.” He didn’t want to ruin the moment by saying something stupid, so he decided it was best that he not say anything.

“We should do it again,” Eren said.

“Yeah.”

Their second kiss is a bit different from the first. There was a sense of urgency to it; a feeling that somehow what they have – what they just started – wouldn’t last for much longer, the same feeling that Armin got when he realized that summer was almost over and school was about to start. It wasn’t bad, though, just different. He didn’t feel intimidated by the uncertainty of what would come next. For the first time in his life, he was actually pretty excited to find out what was in store for him.

He felt at ease in Eren’s arms, kind of like he was meant to be there.

Eventually, they detangled themselves from each other and spent the rest of the night exchanging secret glances and smiles, stealing kisses whenever they could. During the campfire, Armin rested his head in the crook of Eren’s neck.

Underneath the summer sky, Armin couldn’t help but remember why he loved working at the pool.

**Author's Note:**

> //wipes brow
> 
> thank you so much for reading. please let me know if there are any typos or grammatical issues! if you feel inclined, you can find me on [tumblr](http://arlert-arlert.tumblr.com)
> 
> also MAJOR props if you can catch the how to train your dragon reference lmao


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